Baby Boomers Embracing Mobile Technology

Though younger consumers remain at the forefront of mobile technology adoption, Baby Boomers are also embracing mobile - and their behavior is surprisingly similar to younger users’, according to a new study from InsightExpress.

Approximately 80% of all respondents (2015 mobile respondents contacted in July 2007) reported owning a mobile phone, with mobile adoption spread relatively equally across generations: Gen Y (those age 18-24) leads the pack at 85%, followed closely by Gen X (25-44) at 82%, younger Baby Boomers (45-54) at 80%, and older Baby Boomers (55-64) at 79%.

Other findings from the study:

• Over half of Gen Y-ers and 37% for Gen X-ers plan to upgrade their device in the next year or so, and 30% of younger Boomers and almost a quarter (24%) of older Boomers plan to upgrade in the next year.
• Although more Gen Y-ers and Gen X-ers have feature-packed phones that allow the user to connect to people and information in a variety of ways, the Boomers are not too far behind:
  • 51% of Gen Y-ers say they have phones that can access the mobile internet, followed by 47% of Gen X-ers, 39% of younger Boomers and 32% of older Boomers.
  • 75% of younger Boomers have text-messaging capabilities, 54% have ring tones, and 52% have camera phones.
• Gen Y sends the most text messages (43% text on a daily basis), but Boomers are taking up this relatively new mode of communication as well: 16% of younger Boomers and 10% of older Boomers text daily.
• The Boomers are also not that far behind Gen Y in daily mobile internet access: 8% of Gen Y accesses the mobile Internet daily, as do 4% of younger Boomers and 3% of older Boomers.
• Gen Y is more apt to send and receive text messages while driving, but significant numbers from all generations do so as well, despite some state laws against such behavior: 47% of Gen Y-ers, 42% of Gen X-ers, 37% of younger Boomers and 28% of older Boomers admit to texting while driving.
• Two in five Gen Y-ers (40%) using the mobile internet recall seeing some type of advertisement on their phone, and one in four (25%) older mobile users recall seeing ads on their phone.